Fall already....

The only good thing about fall is getting to wear Halowe'en Jewellery!  Recently I've been playing around with enamels and my automotive hydraulic press...

Spider cat.. someone pointed out that he appears to be terrified of the spider hanging off his back leg!

Enameled Ghosts and witches hats
 (Found the funky earring stand in a store going out of business in Key West last winter)

Original enameled cats with their own personal pumpkins!

Today is the end of the sailing season the boat is having it's mast taken down.  I crewed on 4 races  this summer and we won them all... No thanks to me... the 2 races he had friends crewing he didn't do so well, I think to much time was spent drinking and chatting, he also won the only race he did solo.

Since it's still lovely here I'm headed back to the deck with my book!

Black & White Jewelry Challenge

I started making glass beads in about 1994...  ... I love making black and white beads... although I've found that black & white jewellery doesn't sell all that well except for earrings.  So when Sally Russick of The studio sublime put out this challenge I had to jump on board!

Since I like making black and white beads and they don't sell I have a pretty good selection of jewellery... through the ages...

 !997  with early attempts at wire work

2003 I really like the design of this necklace...
don't think I tried very hard to sell it!

2007 ... those have got to be some of the filthiest silver beads I've ever seen.. the look red!

 2013
These are some of the beads I made for this challenge.. Really comfortable bracelet to wear!

These were suppose to be a necklace, they are hollow beads made on a normal mandrel

To see how other people interpreted this challenge follow the list on Sally Russick's blog the host of this wonderful challenge!  or follow the links below!

JAC October blog Carnival, Hallowe'en..

Is Hallowe'en all about colour, has it taken over fall as a season or is it about images?

As you can tell from my collage I like Hallowe'en jewellery....  And I will quite happily buy it from other people (sorry the numbers are so tiny.. they looked huge when I was editing)

1 Skeleton earrings, came from Clairs 15 years ago, they used to be silver coloured, love these!
2 Sugar skulls day of the Dead, My beads, my jewellery, New this year check my etsy store.
3 Pig Pumpkin Bead NLC Beads Nikki
4 My Beads Torch fired enameled metal filagree beads in black and orange
5 My chainmaille bracelet with large holed lampwork beads
6 Beach glass earrings from Seaglassthings
7 My Scarecrow Pendant... his head is hollow, no straw!
8 My witches hat and ghost earrings, Beads occasionally show up in my etsy store www.islandgirl.etsy.com
9 A boro pendant from Boomwire
    Silk cord from jamnglass
10 A pair of earrings I bought from Rocio Bearer Last year at Halowe'en 

I have more.... But thought this was a good representation, actually the chainmaille bracelet is in the gallery, it's way too long for me!  I realized after I wrote this that I forgot my favorite Hallowe'en bead check back on Hallowe'en to see Lezlie Belanger's ( Cankeep  )Witch !

As other blogs  Jewelry Artisan Blogs come live I'll add the links!

   Catswire
Ponder The Cat

Early Beads Blog Hop with AJE

Hopefully there will be a bunch of blogs showing off old beads.. the link should be through here Art Jewelry Elements.. Early BEads Blog Hop
I started making beads on a hot head in the fall of 1994... Mid february I broke the scaphoid bone in my left hand which meant I had a cast seperating my left thumb from my hand and both my first two fingers were casted...however there was a hole in the cast between my fingers and my thumb big enough to stick a piece of glass... So I spent a great deal of the time I had the cast on teaching myself to roll the glass onto the mandrel by just twisting my arm.... I have no clue where any of those beads are... and 18 years later I still make beads left handed!
These pictures are all beads/jewellery made sometime in the late 90's while I still lived in Saskatchewan

 My encased 'DNA beads... think a smaller version of those may be showing up in the gallery later this year!

 Really old hollw red beads with Palladium

 This is actually a long necklace or it comes apart and makes a short necklace and bracelet

My chili pepper necklace strung on leather

Can't find my first necklace which is multicoloured and really does have 10 of my first beads on it...

Just a note here... in 1995 there was no internet, I lived in a small rural Canadian Community, I had never even seen a 'lampworked' glass bead when I started, I learned  from Kate Fowle's video "Lampworked Beadmaking  (an Introduciton)"  I didn't take a class until 2001, that's essentially when I was exposed to my first beads made by someone that knew what they were doing!

Almost wordless Wednesday

I didn't forget this week....  I run a small gallery every summer on my small island... and this summer every second person that comes in wants a lighthouse... so two nights ago a spent the entire night  having nightmares about lighthouses... yesterday I turend my nightmares into slightly wonky enamelled prototypes...  The hardest part is persauding the copper to wrap into a lighthouse shape ... the loops on the Port & Starboard earrings are way too big as I was thinking they were too heavy for earrings and would have to be pendants.. but then I weighed them.... hopefully by next week I'll have the non wonky version!

Flap Your Wings... an Artists Tribute to Judy Glende

I didn't know Judy Glende, but  she was a jewellery designer & fellow blogger who was  diagnosed with brain and lung cancer in December 2011, her second battle with cancer.  Judy lost her battle the middle of March. Flap Your Wings was the name of  Judy's  Etsy shop...Tania of Moobie Grace Designs  has organized this tribute and fundraiser in honor of Judy and her family and other families who have lost friends and relatives to cancer.

When I read about this challenge I had just heard that my sisters first husband had  died of cancer  last fall.  I was in high school when they got married and if there ever was a fifth wheel in a relationship it was me.  I was always underfoot, I'm not sure how much influence he had on my career choice but my first degree was in Geology, his chosen profession... and I worked for him at the Alberta Research Council on two different occasions.  I have a pilots licence because he flew... I drive a standard car because one of the summers I worked for him I was handed the keys to a standard truck and had to figure out how to drive it... I however do not wear long underwear and hiking boots every time I fly on a commercial jet liner, I have great faith that we are not going to crash on the top of a mountain... BUT, my carry-on does contain lots of clothes  in case the airline misplaces my luggage!  I hadn't seen Andre for over 20 years when he died, but I will always remember the kindness he and his family showed to me.

I really like the concept of 'flapping wings'... there is something eternal and everlasting about those two words... My Bird  focal was part of a bead exchange... I might have used the bird in my necklace for that exchange but I held it back as I felt it was so appropriate for this necklace!

I don't work with a bead board (I don't own a bead board ... so length tends to be whatever I end up with... I like the length this turned out although I am thinking that I need to make a short chain to hook the back together to make it double) I haven't decided yet if I will donate this necklace to a charity auction or just donate money to the local Cancer society ...Cancer doesn't care who you are or what you do, so go out and  flap your wings now, we don't know how many tomorrows we have.

A link to other participants in this bloghop

ABS August Challenge-Illustration for American Cresent Cycles, 1899

 This poster was an Illustration for American Cresent Cycles, done in 1899 by Frederick Winthrop Ramsdell.

I love the colours and the style of this illustration... but once I started playing with glass I just kept seeing the windblown tree silhouettes in the background! Once the focal was done... I dug through my extensive hoarded collection of vintage lucite to come up with a 'chain' to hang the bead from. The lucite is knotted between each grouping and theflameworked glass focal bead is enclosed in a copper frame with an enameled copper bead to set it off!

Starving Jewelry Artist Carnival Blog.... " Colour in my work!"

I love colour... lots of colour.... the brighter the better...  I am incompatible with white... I put on a pair of white pants and either spill my coffee or a cat with muddy feet climbs my leg....  Not to mention that snow is white... and I am really beginning to hate snow!

However that said when I'm doing large panels I use a lot of textured clear glass and only one or two colours... , typical window..... BUT  when it comes to beads...  I love colour....

This is actually 3 bracelets....   You've seen pictures of my glass!

Check out the Starving Jewelry Artists Blog here

Other participants in this months blog carnival.....

J3Jewelry

Beadsire

Mussings of a Northern Girl

Bead Sophisticate

FamiLee Jewels

More to come....... !

ABS March challenge.. Finches and Bamboo

Finches and Bamboo, Northern Song dynasty (960–1127)

Emperor Huizong (1082–1135, r. 1101–1125) Chinese

Handscroll; ink and color on silk; 11 x 18 in. (27.9 x 45.7 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

John M. Crawford, Jr. Collection, Purchase, Douglas Dillon Gift, 1981

My original though when I saw this piece was that it looked like it was painted onto Dichroic glass so that's what I used!   I made one large focal and a number of smaller beads in assorted shades of topaz and dichro with 'bamboo' leaves painted onto the bead with a stringer...  With the exception of a couple of copper plated clay Mykanos beads everything in the necklace was made by me!

To see other entries in this challenge check out the Art Bead Scene April Challenge post


Almost wordless Wednesday

This was the gold that I found at the end of my rainbow last week!  I just love those little gold plated seed beads... Guess I should have paired them with green in honour of St Paddys' Day but I've always thought that Red & Gold were the perfect duo!  May have something to do with the fact that my music teacher only had red, gold, blue and silver stars.... So I'm used to seeing ruby red with gold and saphire blue with silver

Starving Jewellery Artists challenge for the month was to use GOLD... well this is gold fill or plate or something but it still LOOKS like gold ....

Almost Wordless Wednesday

This was my soldering exercise this month ... I wanted to see if I could solder all the tiny loops (23 gauge silver) at the top of the hearts without melting the hearts into blobs!

Hearts are all my lampwork/flamework.

Come check out this piece and the other entries for The Starving jewelry Artists Feb Challenge....
February's challenge is to make something that you love, that represents love, for Valentine's Day.

ABS January Callenge blog tour

This months painting is "Brown River" by Wayne Thiebaud... when I squint at the painting all I see are the yellow fields and the coppery brown River....

This nice coppery coloured river leads me to ... 'Copper' my new metal.... Since silver is hovering close to the $30 US per troy ounce (Today's spot $27.39, actually that's down a whole $ since I started writing this post!) I have decided to unlove silver and start loving copper!

Since I like yellow and I'm trying to like copper I actually made two necklaces for this challenge one has already shown up in my blog, I retook the picture on a better(?) background....

The second piece uses a foldformed copper 'bead' as it's focal point. the 'bead is incorporated into the chain and has been hand coloured to highlight the texture in the piece. The links are mostly hand made by me..., but there are also some commercial copper beads, some Tierra Cast Copper., and some Mykanos metalized clay beads, and don't forget the little yellow handformed lampwork beads also made by me!

Link to other participants...... blog tour

Sateam carnival blog "Why did I start making jewelry?"

I have fond memories of picking through beads as a teenager and then stringer them into short choker length necklaces... I have no clue where I bought the beads.... or where any of these necklaces now reside... Next stop on the jewellery train would be sometime in the 90's I took a glass fusing workshop from Warren Langley at Pilchuk in WA state, the class had absolutely nothing to do with beads, or jewellery.... BUT there was also a flameworking class going on at the same time... mainly sculptural stuff....

Pilchuk always has an auction towards the end of the 3 weeks and one of the auction items was a silver wire and glass bead necklace.. which I had to own & do. Looking at the beads now they are very wonky... but that necklace started me on my journey with flame and silver.

But there were a few more stops on the train before I got there.... First was a handformed metal class at Series in Red Deer taught by Karen Cantine.



BOWL !!!! Scale on this is 12 inches square and the sheet metal was 14 guage.....

After a week of hammering that bowl ... my thoughts turned towards smaller items How about a silver class with tiny hammers..... my First 'jewellery' instructor at series was Dee Fontans, she's actually almost more of a performance artist than jeweller. (She actually does phenomenal enameled pieces... but that wasn't the class!) This is the only piece that I know that I made in that class.... (I brought the dichro cab with me)





Enter my hot head torch (1994)..... NOW I have beads I must use them... so although I'm actually a competent silver smith most of my jewellery making is confined to wire wrapping, chainmaille and stringing. I think it's a price point thing more than anything else Under $40 earrings and pendants sell.... over $40 I have to dust them and clean them GACK!

However I still like to do more intricate work ... problem is it's all mine... How much jewellery can I wear!

This was a bracelet I made in a workshop in GA... I did the 'chainmaille' at home after the class ... took it back the next fall to show the instructor and spent spare time during that class making the box link closure! (B'let 2006 & 2007)

Yes I do make silver pieces with smaller hammers ... everyone needs a silver spoon don't they?



But one silver spoon is enough.... However although one can only wear so much jewellery at one time... it;s something that you can never have enough of!

To view other blogs from this talented team - check out:

Bead Sohpisticate

Island Girl ....your here

The Familee Jewels

Galadryl Designs

Musings of a Northern Girl

Beadsire

Almost wordless Wednesday

The Starving Artist Team on Etsy Sateam had a challenge in November to work with colours you don't normally work with. I like bright beads.. but this was an order, she wanted a pink and white bracelet, so I made the beads!.... and the woman I made it for loved it!

I think I would still rather have a purple or yellow bracelet... but that's just me!

Fab Friday Finds

Todays' fab finds are from other members of my etsy groups... First is Fire Diva's

This is Frankie the Weiner Dog from May Beads

2nd Sateam (stands for Starving artist team... I know all about being a starving artist since I've been doing glass full time now for over 20 years!)

This is called Flight of Fancy


my 3rd team is the CGGE Team Creative glass guild

this is a glass brooch called Diva Michelle done by Nivenglassoriginals



And last but not least is the ABSteam Artisan Beaders Street Team This is a necklace done by Patty of BrokenTeePeeDesigns... If you feel the need to buy me something this would be entirely acceptable!

it's call Summertime

April Fools Day

Today is April fools day...Hope no one plays a prank on you! Here it is bright and sunny and might even turn into a warm day! Yesterday I was in Saint John and woke up to two inches of wet sticky snow... I don't think we got anything but rain here! The snow there was quite unnecessary!

Monday was my husbands 60th Birthday so we went out for dinner, then I stayed in town so that I could drop off a piece for the Saint John Aids Auction (The Jellyfish pendant and earrings on right)
I like going to auctions.. I love bidding things up... and yes I have bought things that I really didn't want.. we own a huge custom made kite... we only flew it once, it panicked the horses in the pasture that we had borrowed to fly it in.... Now G is into 2 line stunt kites... (He has 2 parafoils and one delta wing...) I stick with the basic idiot proof kite and run up and down beaches trying to keep my kite airborne!
Unfortunately I won't be here for that auction, so I'll have to leave it up to Gord to bring home lots of useful things!

Hudson Oddities - Audrey Hudson

Audrey is one of the women who's work I carry in my gallery... Hudson Oddities unfortunately all you get with that link is a title page, promising that the site will be here soon....
Audrey makes beach glass jewellery or to quote her “Beach Glass Creations”out of REAL beach glass not out of tumbled art glass. When I first started carrying her work in 2002 in SK all she did was paint on beach glass...


Back in 2002 when you got your first order it came with a light house display stand… Since then she's come out with a line of one of a kind wire wrap sterling and gold fill jewellery.

According to rumour Audrey has always collected Beach glass, the story goes that sometime around 1998 she was told to do something with her 1000's of pieces of glass or throw it all away…. so she started painting the glass, then her father built her a 4 story light house to work in which looks a lot like her original light house displays! This fall her business became a economusee.
If you go visit her in her you will see a wonderful display of glass when you tour the upper floors of her lighthouse, you can browse through her boutique on the main floor or you can even create your own piece of beach glass art in one of her 1 hour workshops.